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¹ WHAT then shall we say concerning Abraham, the chief of our forefathers, who lived according to the flesh before God called him?² For if Abraham were justified by works, he had reason to be proud; but not before God.³ For what said the scripture? Abraham believed in God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.⁴ But to him who works, wages are not considered as a favor but as that which is due to him.⁵ And to him who works not, but only believes in him who justifies sinners, his faith is counted for righteousness.⁶ Just as David also said about the blessedness of the man, whom God declared righteous without works,⁷ Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are wiped away.⁸ Blessed is the man whose sins God will not hold against him.

⁹ Now, therefore, is this blessedness on account of circumcision, or on account of uncircumcision? for we say that Abraham''s faith was accounted to him for righteousness.¹⁰ How then was it given to him? by means of circumcision, or in uncircumcision? It was not given in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.¹¹ For he received circumcision as a sign and a seal of the righteousness of his faith while he was uncircumcised: that he might become the father of all them who believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be given to them also;¹² So that the father of circumcision is not only to those who are of circumcision, but also to those who walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham while he was yet uncircumcised.¹³ For the promise to Abraham and his seed that he should inherit the world was not made through the law, but through the righteousness of his faith.¹⁴ For if they had become heirs by means of the law, then faith would have been empty and the promise made of no effect.¹⁵ For the law causes provocation; for where there is no law, there is no transgression.¹⁶ Therefore it is by faith that we will be justified by grace; so that the promise might be sure to all his seed; not only to him who is of the law, but also to him who is of the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all,

¹⁷ As it is written, I have made you a father of many peoples, in the presence of the God in whom you have believed, who quickens the dead, and who invites those who are not yet in being, as though they were present.¹⁸ For he who was hopeless trusted in hope, that he might become the father of many peoples, as it is written, So shall your seed be.¹⁹ His faith never weakened even when he examined his old body when he was a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah''s womb.²⁰ He did not doubt the promise of God as one who lacks faith; but his faith gave him strength, and he gave glory to God.²¹ He felt assured that what God had promised him, God was able to fulfill.²² Therefore it was given to him for righteousness.

²³ That his faith was given for righteousness, was not written for his sake alone,²⁴ But for us also, for he will number us also, who believe in him who raised our LORD Jesus Christ from the dead;²⁵ Who was delivered up for our offences and arose that he might justify us.